Randy Foye won’t give up starting Dener Nuggets job without a fight

Randy Foye drives around Pelicans guard Eric Gordon in a game last March. (Bill Haber, The Associated Press)

It didn’t take long for news of the Arron Afflalo trade to hit Randy Foye’s ears. And it took less time for the veteran to let Nuggets coach Brian Shaw know that he’s not going to fade into a reserve role without a fight.

“He’s been in (the Pepsi Center) putting in work,” Shaw said Friday during the team’s introduction of its draft picks, Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic. “He, as he should have been, wasn’t all that excited hearing about the trade because obviously people just automatically penciled in Arron as a starter and him as a backup. As a competitor he was like ‘I’m fighting for my job. I still want to be the staring shooting guard on this team.’ And that’s exactly what I would expect.”

And Foye isn’t the only one. The Nuggets are at least two-deep at every position.

“The battles in practice are going to be competitive,” Shaw said. “For us as a coaching staff, it’s going to be a matter of trying to get everybody to buy into getting more done maybe playing less. When you watch San Antonio playing against Miami, one of the nice things about them winning it was it was definitely a team effort, their second unit was important if not more important than their first unit in how they were productive when they played. I think some of our guys could learn from that, if they accept their roles and the depth of our team.”

Asked if he thought it would be difficult for some players to sacrifice their playing time for the good of the team, Shaw said, “Yeah, always. Their competitive nature, they want to be out there as many minutes as they can. A guy like Kenneth (Faried) is going to be playing for a contract, so he wants to be out there as well. That’s the work that we have cut out for us as a staff, is to try to get everybody to buy into that and accept it.”

Wow, had all of 5 seconds to post. Please get real. Back to my point. Beating teams by being deeper without elite talent was Karl’s approach. Sometimes when things change they really just stay the same. We just changed out an older white guy unpopular with the local media and some parts of the fan base for a younger black guy. They look exactly the same to me. I get the front office is trying to load up on deep talent with good contracts to make the possibility of getting a really elite player or two here, but how is that different from Ujiri’s approach? Groundhog Day.
Comparing San Antonio’s elite talent at the top and depth to the Nuggets shear depth is misleading. San Antonio has three guys that can bring it at an elite level when it counts. The Nuggets have none. Get serious.

Reggie

The NBA’s elite players have already decided that they only want to play in one of about a half dozen places and Denver isn’t one of them, so how else are the Nuggets supposed to build their roster, except via depth or the occasional trade?

Karl was fired because–no one will admit this–he was old and set in his ways. Collectively the league’s new wave of GM’s, who are motivated as much by sabermetric thinking as anything else, have decided to go with younger, more flexible coaches who either played recently in the league or who have a track record of developing young talent (no one comes into the NBA ready to contribute right away anymore). So it’s not a White-Black thing, but a changing of the guard. As fans we don’t have to agree with it, but it is what it is and that’s why Lionel Hollins, Karl, Jerry Sloan and many other prominent coaches of the last two decades are out of the game. The Nuggets aren’t contenders and I’m not convinced that just being healthy gets them back into the playoffs in the West, but I think this week’s trades have made them better. We’ll find out how much.

wordcat

I think flexible in this context means paid a lot less. That’s the reality. Owners on the cheap. Karl wasn’t set in his ways. He along with D’Antoni were the guys that pioneered the new NBA. They should both get checks from the Spurs. Stupid writers here still don’t get it. The league has changed but give credit to the coaches that helped change it. The Spurs are nothing like what they were a few years ago thanks to forward thinking people that influenced Pop.
Why would you say no one will admit Karl was fired because he was old and white–the post modern definition of set in his ways? Sort of obvious to anyone not brain dead. Changes of the guard are important but I see no evidence whatsoever that these younger coaches will do any better without elite talent, and few of them will change the game the way Karl and D’Antoni did.

drjpow10

Karl said many times year in and year out that he liked to shorten his bench during the playoffs. Check the record “stats man.” Anyone who thinks that the Spurs should send a check to Karl and D’Antoni is either delusional or just trying to be obstinate. Being familiar with your posts I would guess the latter. Pop has routinely added more depth of players into his lineup in the playoffs. A plan that works when you give guys playing time throughout the year and let them work together as a unit. Something Karl had problems with. If young guys screwed up they were buried on the bench until doomsday. Under Karl Kawai Leonard would most likely still be trying to get playing time away from an Andre Miller type.

wordcat

I’m supposed to be playing nice here, so I will. Popovich has gone into detail about how the way Phoenix played–influenced by both D’Antoni and Karl–changed the whole way the Spurs played. They went from a slow down half court approach after getting their asses handed to them by Phoenix in the playoffs years back to a very up tempo attack a la Karl and D’Antoni which, over time, led to the dominance they had over the Heat. The exact quote from Pop was, after getting beat by Phoenix, ‘We can’t play with this way anymore and expect to win.’ He embraced the Karl Sonics (tons of depth) and the Suns. So, please, you don’t know what you’re talking about. If your point is that the Spurs played way deep into their bench even in the Finals and that set them apart from Karl and D’Antoni in the playoffs, absolutely and agreed. Pop had the balls to follow through on Karl and D’Antoni’s visionary approach even in the Finals. But he also had a lot better players top to bottom than either of those coaches did. I see the Spurs as a fully fleshed out version of an approach that the new Nuggets FO has rejected. We’re now supposed to be like Indiana. Moronic.

drjpow10

I will give you the benefit of the doubt on the Pop quote. You seem to say that D’Antoni and Karl are one and the same. I don’t agree with that. I think Karl is a better coach between those two. I think Karl is an excellent coach Tom, I just thought his run here needed to be over. As far as Pop or any great coach goes, they will adapt and change to rise above the competition, which I believe Karl has had some difficulty with. On the current Spurs roster there I only one player who was drafted that was expected to be a perennial all star, Duncan. Everyone else was developed in the system and has become better top to bottom than most any team in the NBA. I would say better than any team. As far as your following quote “So, please, you don’t know what you’re talking about. If your point is that the Spurs played way deep into their bench even in the Finals and that set them apart from Karl and D’Antoni in the playoffs, absolutely and agreed. Pop had the balls to follow through on Karl and D’Antoni’s visionary approach even in the Finals.” THAT IS EXACTLY MY POINT. George would never follow through in the playoffs. Always put his players on a short leash and it cost him throughout his career. Is Karl visionary? Yes I believe he is. Is he an innovator? Most definitely. Is he a championship coach? No, and I believe he falls short in his personnel management decisions and how he has handled young an less experienced players, which affected their confidence.. How he handled super stars like Ray Allen. Most notably how he handles his bench rotations in the playoffs

Reggie

If it was all about race wordcat then the new coaches over the last couple of years in Philly, Atlanta, Boston and Phoenix would have been black. What those cities DO have in common is that those coaches are all under 50 and have less personnel input than more established coaches like Karl, Hollins or Jerry Sloan. The new GM’s want to run the show these days, not have the coaches steer the organization and the Nuggets have gone the same direction–that was my only point. I don’t think George Karl should have been fired, but there’s no point moaning about that now because it was done–and he may wind up in Brooklyn, so I wish him luck.

wordcat

When did I say it was all about race? Read my posts more closely. You set up a straw man and knocked it down. I opened with saying it was about money. My next comment was to refute the idea that it was about coaches set in their ways. Please read my posts and don’t force your own issues onto the thread. On the other hand, if you don’t think the ‘old white guy’ that can’t relate to AAU bread black players with little or no college experience isn’t super relevant in the NBA in terms of who gets coaching jobs, you’re not following things closely enough.

stujohn

I just read an article that the NBA is boring. If you are not one of the few teams that are playing for a title each year, it can be boring. Can a team like Denver become one of those teams? And, how do you go about it? The Knicks traded for Anthony and gutted their team. Look at them now. Other teams are bad for a few years and trying to improve through the lottery. How would you like to be a team like the Bucks and trying to build a championship team? Becoming the next OKC or San Antionio Spurs is possible. It could happen.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.